


Through the Looking Glass

by nagi_schwarz



Series: Comment Fic 2016 [84]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 08:06:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8136664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagi_schwarz/pseuds/nagi_schwarz
Summary: Written for the comment_fic prompt: "Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard, it was just his luck to accidentally end up in another reality, but a reality where the Wraith were allies and they were allowed to feed off of people as long as they didn't kill them and returned the life force later?"John Sheppard touches a quantum mirror and has a strange day.





	

The thing about the most dangerous alien devices were that they were always the most shiny and attractive. John knew this. He also knew that some of them had built-in psychic lures, so even the most well-seasoned SGC officer, like the military commander of Atlantis, might be tempted to reach out and poke such a shiny and attractive device.  
  
Like a mirror.  
  
He’d heard about quantum mirrors. He didn’t think they were an Ancient thing.  
  
But apparently the Ancients had thought of them too.  
  
Because he touched the mirror - it looked like an ordinary mirror, rectangular, fancy frame - and it flared blue, like things did with his ATA gene triggered them, and behind him Teyla and Rodney shouted, and the world went white.  
  
And John landed on the floor with a grunt.  
  
He stood up, looked around. He was in an identical room to the one he’d been in, only there was no Teyla, Rodney, or Ronon. John peered at the mirror on the wall. He could see - it looked like a painting. Of where he’d just been. Rodney was right up close to the mirror peering at it, Teyla was speaking rapidly into her radio. Ronon was fingering his blaster pistol and looking helpless. Until he pointed and shouted soundlessly, _Behind you!_  
  
John spun.  
  
A Wraith lunged at him.  
  
Only it pinned him against the wall and clamped a hand over his mouth - not its feeding hand - and it said,   
  
“No, Guide, hush, they’ll hear us.”  
  
It took John a moment to realize, but the Wraith was...young. A teenager. And he was wearing...an Atlantis uniform. With black military patches on it.  
  
The Wraith paused, listening, and then it eased back.  
  
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” the Wraith said. “You weren’t answering your radio. I took out the Hostiles at the generator like you asked, and you said to rendezvous at Ops, but you weren’t there. It was crawling with hostiles. Lorne’s not answering comms either. What are your orders?”  
  
John stared at the Wraith, completely baffled.  
  
The Wraith raised its feeding hand, and John flinched back, but the Wraith snapped its fingers under John’s nose. “Atlantis to Colonel Sheppard. Orders, sir?”  
  
“What the hell is going on here?” John demanded.  
  
“We’re under attack by the X Hostiles, sir,” the Wraith said. “They’ve taken Ops but can’t seem to figure out any of the Ancient tech or the Stargate for now. We were too optimistic, thinking we’d seen the last of them after you went after them with the X-302’s and that alternate universe Daedalus showed up. Colonel Lorne’s not answering his comms, but you told him to retreat to the mainland with Teyla’s forces if necessary, so I’m assuming that’s where he went.”  
  
John was pretty sure he’d landed in some kind of whacky dream, because even though the Wraith had creepy Wraith voice, he was talking just like a human. From Earth.  
  
“What’s the plan? Where’s Ronon?”  
  
“Who the hell are you?” John demanded, but he remembered being on the _Daedalus,_ those aliens who’d been damn hard to kill, who’d had a weird X-like insignia on the side of their ship.  
  
The Wraith flinched back, looking hurt. “Sir, it’s me, Starwhite, son of Bonewhite and Queen Starnight.”  
  
John had always assumed because the Wraith were evolved from bugs and had queens that they hatched out of eggs like bugs.  
  
“Bonewhite? Starnight?”  
  
The Wraith rolled his eyes, which was pretty insolent for someone who otherwise called John ‘sir’. And since when was Lorne a colonel?  
  
“You call my father Todd,” Starwhite said. “My human name is John, remember?” Then he peered at John, concerned. “Did you hit your head? Are you all right?”  
  
“I think,” John said, “I fell through a quantum mirror.”  
  
Starwhite blinked at him. “What?”  
  
John pointed to the device on the wall. When he turned and looked at it, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon were all crowded around it, shouting. Ronon kept pointing his blaster at it, Rodney kept slapping his hand away, and Teyla was beckoning for John to return.  
  
Starwhite prowled closer to it, cautious. He poked it, but nothing happened. Rodney started to touch it, and Ronon slapped his hand away.

“Then you’re from another universe.” Starwhite swiped a hand over his face. “That means my commander is still missing and I’m cut off from the rest of my platoon. How do you handle X Hostiles in your universe?”  
  
“We’ve never encountered them in my universe,” John said. “Our primary enemy is - you.”  
  
Starwhite looked confused. “What? Why?”  
  
“Because you eat people!”  
  
Starwhite actually looked offended. “I would never! If I ever borrow life in an emergency situation - and only in an emergency situation - I always give it back.”  
  
John swiped a hand over his face. “This is too weird. I can’t -”  
  
There was a clatter of footsteps in the hall. Starwhite swung around, raised his P-90 as smoothly as any soldier John had worked with.  
  
John’s doppelganger came careening into the room, Ronon and Rodney on his heels. Other John grabbed at table, threw it over, flung himself down behind it and laid down cover fire.  
  
“Starwhite!” Other John snapped. “Sit rep!”  
  
“Generator is secure, sir.” Starwhite flung himself down beside Other John and poised his weapon to fire on the enemy. “Also, an alternate you came through that mirror there.”  
  
Other John cast John a look - John had automatically taken cover with the rest of them - and nodded.  
  
“Right. Once these guys are out of my city, we can send him home.”  
  
“I think the mirror’s activated by the gene, sir,” Starwhite said. “If we could lay down enough cover fire, he could probably go back through -”  
  
Starwhite’s helpful suggestion was interrupted by enemy weapon blasts. Other John, Ronon, Rodney, and Starwhite immediately returned fire.   
  
“Does anyone have grenades?” Ronon asked.  
  
Starwhite reached into his tac vest and handed one over without missing a beat.  
  
“Has anyone heard from Lorne?” Other John asked.  
  
“No, sir,” Starwhite said. “Lost contact with him after I got done taking care of that generator.”  
  
“I’m going to assume he followed orders and is safe.” Other John nodded at Ronon, and all of them ducked down when Ronon pulled the pin and tossed the grenade into the hallway. There was a clatter, a pause, and then an explosion.  
  
“You know what the worst thing about this attack is?” Other John asked.  
  
John was pretty sure the worst thing about his day in general was that he was in this universe.  
  
“No, sir,” Starwhite said.  
  
“Today is pizza day in the mess hall.” Other John poked his head up, peered through the smoke. Something - or someone - was moving.  
  
“Isn’t pizza your favorite?” Rodney asked.  
  
Starwhite’s expression darkened. “It really is.”  
  
“Have you tried feeding on one of the Hostiles yet?” Rodney prodded. “Todd said they’re pretty tasty.”  
  
“Sir?” Starwhite asked. “Permission to -”  
  
“Go. Fight. Defend your pizza.” Other John waved him forward.  
  
Starwhite let loose a burst of cover fire, vaulted over the table, and plunged into the smoke. Ronon was on his heels.  
  
“We really need to stop goading him like that,” Other John said, but he looked utterly unrepentant.  
  
Rodney glanced at John. “Now’s probably your best bet,” he said. “To get back home.”  
  
John glanced at the mirror on the wall. His own team was beckoning.  
  
Other John raised his rifle. “We got you covered. Have at it.”  
  
John took a deep breath, turned toward the mirror, made a break for it. His hand hit the glass and his world turned white and then he was landing on the floor again.  
  
Teyla pulled him to his feet, began patting him down like an anxious nurse. “John, are you all right?”  
  
“I’m fine. Let’s get out of here. We’ll send a containment team back for the mirror.” He shook himself out.  
  
As they headed down the hall, Rodney piped up with, “Was it just me, or was that Wraith wearing at Atlantis military uniform?”  
  
“I’d rather not talk about it.”


End file.
